New revelations on CIA drug planes

Michael Webster: Investigative reporter. Sept 7, 2008 12:01 AM PDT

This is about the strange story of the Gulfstream II jet filled with 3.7 tons of cocaine that crashed in the Yucatan. The Laguna Journal has learned that the EU through the European Parliament is investigating the circumstances surrounding the planes used by the “CIA for alleged drug shipments and extraordinary rendition" flights.

The largest and most respected Mexico City newspaper El Universal reports that it has obtained documents from the United States and the European Parliament which "show that the plane flew several times to Guantanamo, Cuba, presumably to transfer terrorism suspects." It said the European Parliament was investigating the private Grumman Gulfstream II, registered by the European Organization for the Safety of Air Navigation, for suspected use in CIA “drug transport and rendition” flights in which prisoners are covertly transferred to a third country or US-run detention centers outside of the USA.

The jet that crashed near Mérida, Yucatán in September, 2007 with almost 4 tons of cocaine belonging to narco trafficker Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán briefly headed the news today, then mysteriously disappeared. Not a word has been printed since. Many believe that an American agency caused the story to be squashed. The story connected prior CIA use of the plane for clandestine flights from South and Central America, Europe and Cuba and was accompanied by a top secret detailed map of those flights.

As reported in the Laguna Journal last year the headline read U.S. CIA and Homeland planes busted for running drugs. Both planes were believed to have been carrying Colombian drugs for Guzman. The article went on to say in the broadening scandal kicked off by two CIA and Dept of Homeland Security-linked airplanes that were also busted in Mexico with multi-ton loads of cocaine.

According to the MadCowMorningNews the U.S. corruption investigation turned up a central figure in that probe and it turns out to be Guyanese pilot Michael Francis Brassington, a name familiar to readers who have followed the unfolding and still largely untold story of the activities and associates of the terrorist hijackers in Florida.

Michael Brassington was the co-pilot on a drug running Lear jet (N351WB) caught by DEA agents at Orlando Executive Airport in July of 2000 carrying 43 pounds of heroin.

The Guyanese pilot Brassington is implicated by a former Customs agent as part of a ring of corrupt Customs officials being investigated by the Dept. of Homeland Security. Mr. Brassington, whose name is a footnote in the 9/11 investigation, was named in a procurement scandal over the disputed purchase by the Guyana Defense Forces of two antique 30-year old helicopters from a 'dummy' company in Delaware that sounds suspiciously like a front for the CIA, the ironically-named "Global X Group".

While researching pilot Brassington's involvement in the Guyana scandal, they were astonished to discover that Brassington's father (also named Michael Brassington) has close business ties with one of the most notorious oligarchs in the Russian Mob, Oleg Deripaska, the "last man standing" in the brutal Aluminum Wars in Russia during the 1990's for control of that strategic resource.

This information is important in order to gain a full understanding of the 9/11 attack. Brassington's name surfaced in connection with 9/11 because he had been the co-pilot on the drug-running Lear jet (N351WB) owned by Wallace J. Hilliard. Hilliard also—and not coincidentally—owned the Venice FL flight school where Mohamed Atta and Marwan Al-Shehhi were at the time learning to fly.

One of the other jets with the tail number N987SA records show that it had changed hands twice over time. Title indicated the plane had been owned by the U.S. Government but how it ended up in the hands of suspected drug traffickers remains a mystery.

The Mexican attorney general's office said the blue and white Gulfstream II that crashed in a remote jungle area on the Yucatán Peninsula said authorities seized 132 bags of cocaine weighing almost four tons.

Mad Cow Morning News reporter visited the believed owners of the plane at the time, "Donna Blue Aircraft Inc" of Coconut Beach FL., and discovered that it's an "empty office suite with a blank sign out front."

There was no sign of Donna Blue Aircraft, Inc., at the address listed at the Florida Dept. of Corporations, at 4811 Lyons Technology Parkway #8 in Coconut Beach FL. The new owners of the corporation recently registered in South Florida were two Brazilians. However, there were, oddly enough, a half-dozen unmarked police cars parked directly in front of the empty suite.



The aircraft was registered just ten days before they bought the plane. So is this just a Front Company? Investigative journalist Daniel Hopsicker said, “It’s a phony front company.”

Phone calls to Butters Development, the industrial park's leasing agent, went unreturned.

According to other news reports, the plane was once owned by ultra-rich Bush supporter Stephen Adams. (In July, the Federal Election Commission filed suit against Adams on charges that he "failed to report and include proper disclaimers on ,000,000 in billboard ads during the 2004 Presidential race.")

Not only that, but Mad Cow alleges that Adam's business partner owned the other American drug plane that was found in Mexico with 5.5 tons of cocaine in 2006.

Recently-released FAA records from the Gulfstream II business jet that went down in Mexico with four tons of cocaine reveal that before it was “parked” in the name of a New York real estate developer with ties to the Russian Mob, the plane was owned by a secretive Midwestern media baron and Republican fund-raiser, who had a business partner who, incredibly, owned the other American drug plane, the DC9, recently busted in Mexico.

Adams was in business with Miami attorney Michael Farkas, who founded SkyWay Aircraft, which owned the DC9 busted in Mexico with 5.5 tons of cocaine aboard.

Moreover at the same time the Bush Ranger extraordinaire Stephen Adams owned the Gulfstream (N987SA) in 1999 and 2000, he was personally buying over million of billboard ads for George W. Bush for his 2000 Presidential election bid.

Last October, the Austin American Statesman reported the plane had previously flown to Guantanamo Bay.

Here's a Chicago Public Radio story from October 31, 2007 about the crashed CIA drug plane.

The crashed drug plane also has been linked to a Bush fundraiser.

Mad Cow Morning news has been covering stories about the CIA and drug smuggling. The plane was owned by Donna Blue Aircraft, Inc.

Mad Cow visited Donna Blue's offices and took photos of what appears to be a sham company. Here's a photo of some unmarked police cars parked in front Donna Blue Aircraft's empty suite: